Report On Yugoslavia: A Search for Laughter

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The "religion." Tito Their crowd rarely "Newspeak" uses the language re word fers to it as "mysticism"; they regard it as the true enemy of Marxism-Leninism-Titoism. "The influence of the reactionary clergy must be stamped out," the Commu nist Central Committee announced this month. The Titoists think their attitude toward "mysticism" has been shrewdly re strained. "Our policy toward the church has been proved right," boasted Milovan Djilas, Minister Without Portfolio. "We have not made a martyr of her." What Djilas meant was that a paper right of worship has been left in Yugoslavia, and that this serves to camouflage persecution of the church.

The Orthodox Church has about 7,000,000 followers, and the Roman Catholic Church, strongest in Croatia and Slovenia, has about 6,000,000. The two-churches have maintained a solid front, but it is the Roman Catholic Church which has seen Associated Press more of the reign of terror and has also resisted more fiercely.

The Catholics have lost every school, orphanage, old folks' home or other type of refuge—in all, about 500 educational or charitable institutions. Many priests have been arrested for their sermons. A few months ago one was arrested in Zagreb because he told workers they ought to be married in church.

Intensive indoctrination of Marxism in schools has been recently stepped up. Pupils get heart-to-heart lectures from teachers : "Don't go to church, there is no God, come along with us. Otherwise you won't be able to go to school any more, and you won't get a job."

No soldier may go to church (at Christmas quite a few slipped into Belgrade churches and hid in dark corners), nor may teachers or government workers, except at the risk of losing job and ration card. In the past five years the Communist regime has killed one Catholic bishop and imprisoned two. It has killed 350 to 400 priests and imprisoned an equal number.

Last October Father Kalojera, from the lower Dalmatian coast, was tried in Cetinje, capital of Montenegro. He entered the dock in a highly nervous state, although there were no marks on him. The prosecutor began to read from Father Kalojera's "confession." The priest interrupted: "With your tortures, I didn't know what I was saying." The judge slammed his gavel. "How dare you suggest that our forces of security would descend to inhuman methods?" Father Kalojera replied: "They put electric wires in my mouth and down my throat, and then switched on the current."

Last spring throughout Slovenia church collections were banned. Churchgoers, like early Christians, throw offerings on the altar. A priest told me: "Nevertheless, the churches are more crowded than they have ever been. The people sing their hearts out; you should hear them. They get a great lift out of coming to church."

The fourth factor contributing to Yugoslavs' resentment of Communism is the most obvious, and is also the entirely convincing reason why in present circumstances the resentment cannot be translated into effective opposition: the security police.

The Oodbah is about 40,000 strong. Every Yugoslav has a police dossier (karakteristika). There are no limits to the power of the UDB; one of its officials recently told a

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